Police Officer Involved Domestic Violence.
Lighting a candle of remembrance for those who've lost their lives to domestic violence behind the blue wall, for strength and wisdom to those still there, and a non-ending prayer for those who thought they had escaped but can't stop being afraid.

Custom Search

Friday, February 22, 2008

[IL] Ex-Sgt Peterson shocked Kathleen's death is ruled homicide?

Drew Peterson says he's shocked at 3rd wife's death ruled homicideAssociated Press02/22/2008Former Bolingbrook police sergeant Drew Peterson says he's shocked that his third wife's death was ruled a homicide Thursday. A forensic pathologist says the 2004 death of Kathleen Savio was a homicide and she drowned. An initial autopsy said her death was accidental. But authorities exhumed her body last year after Peterson's fourth wife Stacy Peterson went missing. Drew Peterson says the ruling is unbelievable. Peterson has denied any involvement in either case and he has not been charged with wrongdoing. He has been named as a person of interest.

As TV news trucks idled outside his home Friday, Drew Peterson holed up inside, expressing confidence that the truth would eventually set him free.

"I have a team of lawyers for that," he said. When asked about the return of the media outside the house, he said: "This is something that's come up, and it too will die down."

The former Bolingbrook police sergeant is a suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy, who was 23 years old when she vanished Oct. 28. On Thursday, autopsy results were released stating that his third wife's death was a homicide.

"I still don't believe it's accurate," Peterson, 54, said.

"The thing is, everything will come out eventually."

On March 1, 2004, Kathleen Savio, 40, was found dead in the dry bathtub of her home in Bolingbrook.

Her hair was soaked with blood from a gash on her scalp, and she had bruises and abrasions on her body. The cause of death was drowning, and a coroner's jury at the time ruled it was accidental.

But on Thursday, Will County State's Atty. James Glasgow called the drowning a homicide after the results of a Nov. 13 autopsy were returned.

Authorities reopened the case after Stacy Peterson vanished, but stopped short of naming Drew Peterson a suspect in the homicide.

"At this stage, we're not naming a suspect in the Savio investigation," said Illinois State Police Sgt. Tom Burek.

Peterson, who was just weeks from finalizing his divorce from Savio when she died, suggested the latest autopsy results are wrong.

He said he didn't believe her injuries were necessarily evidence of foul play.

"That bruising could have come from anywhere," he said. "Was she killed? Was that bruising from exercising? From wrestling with the kids?"

Peterson has not been charged with any crime and says he had nothing to do with either case.

But he said it's obvious that authorities view him as a suspect in Savio's death.

"I'm a suspect for everything," he said.

"If Abraham Lincoln were killed a few years later, they'd be looking at me for that too."